Analysts highlight the fourth quarter of 2023 as particularly noteworthy, with trading volume surpassing $10.3 trillion during this period. This represents a remarkable growth of over 53% compared to the previous quarter’s $6.7 trillion. Moreover, the average daily trading volume in the fourth quarter soared to $75.1 billion, marking a 92% surge from the previous quarter. However, despite these impressive statistics, the total daily trading volume for the year fell short of 2022 levels by more than 31%, reaching nearly $59 billion in 2023.
The rankings of the top 30 crypto assets have undergone significant changes, with SOL and AVAX achieving remarkable success. Furthermore, two new crypto assets, namely Internet Computer (ICP) and Near Protocol (NEAR), entered the top thirty. Bitcoin and Ethereum also exhibited substantial growth throughout 2023.
While the non-fungible token (NFT) market experienced a decline in trading volume compared to 2022, it still managed to reach a notable $12 billion. The Ethereum Blockchain maintained its dominance in the NFT space. After a decline in trading volume from February to September 2023, the NFT market witnessed modest growth in October, followed by two major surges in November and December.
Despite the FTX fiasco in 2022 and regulatory challenges faced by cryptocurrency exchanges during the past year, centralized exchanges (CEX) continued to dominate the market, accounting for over 91% of spot trading volume. Moreover, CEX enjoyed a 98% share of the crypto derivatives trading volume, surpassing decentralized exchanges (DEX).
The approval of US spot Bitcoin ETFs by regulators in January sparked optimism among traders and investors in the last quarter of 2023. This positive sentiment propelled the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies by 55%, surging from $1.1 trillion to $1.6 trillion. Considering that the total capitalization of the crypto market stood at $832 billion at the beginning of the year, this represents a remarkable 108% growth over the course of the year.
CoinGecko’s analysts also discovered that cryptocurrency legalization has gained traction worldwide, with 119 countries having legalized cryptocurrencies to varying degrees by December. In addition, within a span of fewer than three years, crypto projects distributed tokens worth a staggering $26.6 billion for free.